Urban Design Framework Draft to be Presented to the SLU Public

The journey to produce an Urban Design Framework (UDF) for the SLU neighborhood logged an important milestone in late August when the last of six charettes was held.  If you’re new to the process here is what these terms mean:

• The UDF will establish a shared design vision and implementation strategy for the future of SLU, building on the SLU Neighborhood Plan that was adopted in 2007.
• A charette is a term for a collaborative design activity. The charettes have given community organizations, residents, businesses, property owners and design professionals a chance to talk about a vision for South Lake Union’s future. “The charettes generate issues and recommendations that help to shape the Design Framework,” explained Marshall Foster, Special Projects Manager for the City of Seattle.

As people have participated in these charettes, a working group composed of representatives from SLUFAN, the Cascade Neighborhood Council, the South Lake Union Chamber of Commerce, key property owners, the Lake Union Opportunities Alliance, and other community groups have met to review and refine the outcomes of the charrettes. Ultimately, this Working Group will work with the City to distill ideas from the charrettes into a clear set of proposals in the Design Framework.

“One of the things we’ve heard from SLUFAN and other groups is that SLU needs a clear, comprehensive vision for how the neighborhood will develop over time. The neighborhood plan and other past efforts set out policy goals, but when you get down to specifics, they’re not there. We want to create a shared vision (the UDF) for SLU that everyone understands and that creates certainty whether you are a resident, a worker or a builder. This way you can see how the neighborhood is going to evolve and how that vision takes shape,” explained Foster.

One recommendation that has emerged, and seems to be commonly held, is that Thomas Street should be turned into a green street to provide a pedestrian corridor to link the SLU neighborhood with both Queen Anne and the Seattle Center, Foster said.

Now that the charettes are finished the Framework will be drafted. Some of the recommendations in the UDF will eventually be codified into zoning requirements while others will provide guidelines rather than hard and fast zoning rules.

All of the working group meetings and charettes have been open to the public. If you haven’t had a chance to participate in the process, there’s still time. There will be several public forums held this fall in which the draft framework will be presented to everyone in SLU. Stay tuned for the time and date of future forums.

For more information about the UDF go to: http://www.seattle.gov/DPD/Planning/South_Lake_Union/Overview/